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Gag Addendum
Note All of the links to podcasts currently on this wiki will take you to pages no longer hosting the audio file. Check out Gamespot's Soundcloud for any episode you are interested in. Tip: Subscribe to Gamespot's Soundcloud with RSS to easily browse the episodes. 0-9 1-877-J0n-Tech--Tired of having a hard to remember phone number (1-877-506-8324), the panel asked listeners to come up with something you could spell on a standard phone keypad instead. On the 4/27/11 episode, listener Screaming Vengeance wrote in to suggest 1-877-J0n-Tech, which Magrino and Sinclair quickly came to love. And frequently yell. 31st December 1969--The date GameSpot was founded by the fathers of Shaun McInnis, Tom Mc Shea and Brendan Sinclair. Founded on new years eve of that very year, the first review was that of Space War, scoring a 1.0, as, according to Shaun McInnis, it wasn't even a good game back then. (In reality, this is a placeholder date for unpublished stories on the site that pops up on the live site from time to time as a result of bugs. Oops!) $500--During his guest hosting stints, Tom Magrino has made a habit of promising listeners that if they fulfill simple requests, "Brendan will send you $500 or something." It is at least as old as the homework assignment for the 9/15/09 episode of the HotSpot. A-G Babysitting Mama--Technically, this is an On the Spot thing, but during E3, Tom Mc Shea made an appearance on Gamespot's video show to talk about Ron Majesco's Babysitting Mama. The end result topped the list of listener Liuqahs15's Top 5 Most Offensive HotSpot Moments, as compiled on YouTube. Runners-up for the dubious honor included Tom Magrino offending the French, Brendan Sinclair talking about doll genitals, Mc Shea (again) on advertising for foster kids, and Sinclair explaining why people hate and fear Professor X. Ball and juice--Although the HotSpot does not typically cover sports, Tom Mc Shea was once allowed to share the greatest quote in the history of journalism. Speaking with reporters after his first meeting with the Denver Broncos, quarterback Tim Tebow told a reporter, "I was jacked leaving that room. I didn't even want to visit another room. It was not enough time. We were excited, we were enthusiastic. There was passion. It was just intense, and it was ball and it was juice. The juice level in that room was high, and it was awesome." Batman--Tom Mc Shea and Brendan have a long-running debate as to whether Batman is, in fact, a scientist or an orphan. Brendan points to the fact that Batman's parents are dead. Tom references a Homer Simpson quote stating that Batman is a scientist. Both agree the designations are mutually exclusive. Boom Boom Pow Away--Briefly appeared as Brendan's sign off line at the end of the Hotspot. The line originated in an internal Activision memo regarding the company's lawsuit against former Infinity Ward heads Jason West and Vince Zampella. For an example, see the end of the 10/26/10 episode of the Hotspot. The Bungie Family--'''When discussing the future of Bungie after its from Microsoft, Shaun McInnis told the actions of Bungie as though it were of two people name Mr. and Mrs. Bungie. He later went on to say that they had kids to deal with while making decisions on the family's game producing (done by hand, of course). '''Cake or pie?--While discussing Christmas gifts, Rich Gallup got excited about a cake pan that made it possible to make a cake with pie filling. That sparked a debate over whether cake or pie was better, one that rages to this day (albeit not on the show any longer). Chris "Cameo Pants" Watters--'''Through a string of appearances on the Hotspot, panelist Chris Watters was only able to make cameos due to writing reviews. It first happen during the 07/14/2009 because at that time he was still making the review for Battlefield 1943 '''Dell monitor--Tom Magrino Has a deep love for messing with the Dell monitor during the HotSpot, followed by a quiet beep, not quite enough to keep the attention from shifting over to Magrino however. One example of this can be found on 4/06/11 of the HotSpot. Dreamcast--'Most times when the Dreamcast is mentioned on the show, host Brendan Sinclair and panelist Tom Mc Shea will start talking about "How great the Dreamcast was" and "How horrible it was when Sega decided to kill it". This is usually followed by them asking the other panelists if they had a dreamcast. If the answer is no, then they go off talking about that too. '''For a Wii Game (Fawg)–'The panel members have a running gag surounding the limitations of the Nintedo Wii in comparisson to other consoles. One pannel member(needs citation) devised the accronym "FAWG"- pronounced similar to "dog"- in order to shorten the oft used comical phrase. '''Fine CBS Programs--Gamespot is owned by CBS Interactive, and any time a CBS property comes up on the Hotspot, it is referred to by the panel members as "a fine CBS program." Sometimes, the praise is honest (Star Trek, Twilight Zone). Other times, the crew is talking about Two and a Half Men. Flying That Flag--Early in the HotSpot's history (in the first year, I'll get the show when I have more time), the phrase "Keep on flying that flag" was coined and repeated multiple times over the following episodes. Gears of War 2-- The HotSpot's go-to game for all their mocking needs. On episode 09/16/08 (82:16) it was noticed (due to homework assignment answer) that Gears of War characters have huge feet and the characters feet were referred as "lower walking regions." It is a tradition of sorts that one of the examples for each new homework assignment must reference Gears of War 2, usually the characters of Dom and Maria. Glaive Dragonz--This came about during a discussion about the futility of second-tier games stapling on a multiplayer mode in order to boost sales when the vast majority of the audience is already spoken for by Call of Duty, Halo and the like. Someone took objection to the notion, suggesting that everyone in the office was part of a Dark Sector clan called "The Glaive Dragonz" (the unique weapon employed by the protagonist of Dark Sector is a glaive). Since then, the HotSpot's online gaming clan has fictitiously participated (and according to canon, dominates) the multiplayer mode for any game for which a multiplayer mode was a marketing-driven add-on designed to pad out a feature list and boost sales instead of a serious attempt to create an enduring online community. For example, the Glaive Dragonz were big into BioShock 2. Grease Fire Spoiler--One of the biggest running jokes in the GameSpot office is pretending to spoil the ending of a game (or movie, or anything really) by suggesting that the climax of the story is a grease fire that kills off every single character. The joke was born from a discussion between Shaun McInnis and Aaron Thomas about the final season of The Wire. As a way of griefing anyone in the office who hadn't seen the series, they pretended to spoil the final season by discussing the slow, agonizing "grease fire" that started at the beginning of season five and just slowly continued building until the final episode, with each major character dying in a slow, horrible fashion (even the child characters). The gag is now applied to more or less every game that someone proclaims they don't want spoiled for them. H-M "Hotspot OUT!" - '''Tom Magrino's standard outro tagline when guest hosting the show. He has also been known to hijack the outro with this tagline while only being a panelist. '''If you are X please write in--'''On more than one episode Tom Magrino (either guest hosting or just as a panelist) has asked specific people to write in such as "If you are from a foreign country, please write in"and "If you are a neo-nazi, please write in". This request is usually followed by the promise of Brendan sending whoever writes in $500 or something. It is believed that Magrino simply doesn't believe these people and/or countries exist, but a simple e-mail is enough to squash his head full of conspiracy theories. '''Kevin eats a hat--Kevin VanOrd once made a bet that a game announcement heavily teased by Team Ninja would not be Ninja Gaiden Sigma II, saying if it was, he would eat his hat. It was Ninja Gaiden Sigma II, and Kevin was forced to eat a hat. Listener Hou Chung depicted the activity in glorious detail. Kingdom Hearts and Kevin's mic--Like all sane people, the HotSpot has an official stance that Kingdom Hearts series (now published by Squidix) is crap. However, from time to time, Kevin VanOrd insists on defending the game on the HotSpot. That's when the host cuts his mic. One example can be found shortly after the 24-minute mark of the 09/07/10 show. Leland Yee - During the episode that featured an interview with California congressman Leland Yee, Shaun did a remarkably poor spontaneous impersonation of Mr. Yee under the mistaken assumption that recording had stopped. Brendan had done the toss to a pre-recorded Leland Yee interview, and after a few seconds of dead air, Shaun broke the silence with, "Hi, everybody! I'm Leland Yee!" For reasons Shaun doesn't really know, this voice was basically Dr. Nick from The Simpsons on a balloon full of helium. Link burns puppies--At GDC 2009, Tom Mc Shea had to write an impressions piece on The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, based on nothing but the game's teaser trailer. On the 3/31/09 episode, Mc Shea said he "just kinda pooped it out." He also debated padding the piece out with speculation, specifically the idea that Link powers the train in the game by shoveling puppies into the furnace instead of coal. Listener Greg Arnold produced a brilliant piece of concept art for Tom's vision of the game. Live from...--Jeff Gerstmann would introduce every episode of the HotSpot as being aired live, typically from an unlikely venue (South Korea, the fire escape ladder on the sixth floor, Bullworth Academy) Lizard puns--For reasons too sinister to detail in public, Tom Mc Shea has an unreasonable love of lizard-themed puns. This can be traced to the 07/13/2010 show (1:28:36) where Mc Shea debuted, possibly, the first lizard-themed pun. It was met with mixed to negative reviews from the panelists. Guest host Tom Magrino called it "pretty, pretty terrible". Mad Dog and the Tom--'''Shaun's altenate reality vision of The HotSpot, in which the podcast has become an edgy AM talk radio franchise featuring two hosts named "Mad Dog" (Brendan) and "The Tom" (Tom Mc Shea). N-T '''The Oreo Pizza-- '''An old running joke where panelists would name drop the Oreo Pizza that was currently being marketed by Domino's Pizza. Whenever there was dead air or a news story that needed a horrible comparison, the Oreo Pizza was brought into the conversion. Once the panelists had actually tried an Oreo Pizza, their morbid fascination had been satiated and determined to never speak of it again. Vinny first introduced the Oreo Pizza during the (10/02/07) podcast. '''PunPunPun.com--Before there were Lizard Puns, there was PunPunPun.com. During one of his guest hosting shows, Tom Magrino insisted on going to PunPunPun.com to read off the Pun of the Day. Anyone with further details as to why he would do this is encouraged to edit this entry accordingly. Pronunciation--While some of the HotSpot panelists are well-read, they are not well-spoken and routinely find new and awful ways to butcher pronunciation of even the most mundane (MOON-da-nee) words. For example, on the 4/27/11 episode, multiple listeners write in to condemn Magrino for pronouncing "Ocarina" (ock-ah-REE-nuh) as oh-KREE-nuh. His excuse that he is from the small town of Hamilton OH, where "we all say it that way" was dismissed by a fellow Hamiltonian who pronounces it properly, and by someone from a nearby town who is unsurprised that someone from "Hamiltucky" is unable to correctly pronounce such an obvious word. Ron Majesco--The brilliant and fictitious founder of Majesco Games. He is nearly as brilliant--and nearly as fictitious--as Gary Atari. As of the 3/16/11 show, Ron apparently has a wife named Marge, though it is largely believed to be a loveless marriage surviving only on its own inertia. Sandwiches--A frequent ending to earlier HotSpot episodes included Rich Gallup mentioning sandwiches in some way (e.g. "You guys wanna go get sandwiches?" "I could use a sandwich."). References to Rich's legacy of sandwich endings have popped up here and there throughout the Vinny, Tor and Brendan hosting regimes as well Sloppy Seconds--Tom Mc Shea's derogatory nickname for Obsidian Entertainment, who are famous for making sequels to other companies' established IP's. Squidix--The HotSpot's aquatic/erotic nickname for the corporate combination of Square Enix and Eidos. SQUare +eIDos+enIX = Squidix. Pronounced exactly how you're imagining it. First introduced by Brendan Sinclair in the 05/04/10 podcast at 26:40. "Still your only audio source for all the hot topics in the world of video games"--Rich Gallup's tagline for the show, which stubbornly endured for years despite the rampant popularity of podcasts that discuss hot topics in the world of video games. U-Z Xkamun1k80r--An April Fool's joke gone largely unnoticed. For April 1, GameSpot News ran a fake front page with one storyline headlined "Pope's GamerTag unveiled" and Xkamu1k80r named in the deckhead as the tag in question. Most readers assumed that was the end of it, but Brendan had set up the account months earlier in an attempt to make a character that could be fleshed out through just the publicly available profile and achievement information. When nobody bothered to check and see if the GamerTag actually existed, Brendan tried to salvage the joke by making it a homework assignment to write in with details about Xkamun1k80r's gaming habits. You might sound just like this!--When Rich Gallup was the host, this is how every listener call segment started. He would start with the phone number, then segue into the first phone call of the show with said quote. Your mom (fill in the blank)--Brendan loves a good "Your mom" joke. He even loves a bad "Your mom" joke, as evidenced by the 7/17/08 show, where Tor refers to Dragon Age as "a spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate," to which Brendan retorts "Your mom is a spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate." Brendan's love of mom jokes came back to haunt him when Tom Magrino, in a guest-hosting episode, made the homework assignment to come up with a game-related "your mom" joke at Brendan's mom's expense. The first known evidence of Brendan's unhealthy love of "your mom" dates back to a November 2006 installment of GameSpot News' defunct video show The Last Word, during which Tim Surette's mom suffered the brunt of his fury.